Iraq's Kurds ask U.S. to keep Turkish troops away

ARBIL, Iraq - The Kurds' parliament in Kurdish-controlled northern Iraq called on the United States today to prevent an influx of Turkish troops if U.S.-led forces invade Iraq.

Neighboring Turkey, which firmly opposes any independent Kurdish state, has been negotiating with Washington on the role Turkish troops would play in north Iraq -- beyond Baghdad's control since the 1991 Gulf War -- in the event of war over Iraq's alleged banned weapons.

Turkey's government agreed Monday to seek parliamentary approval for U.S. troops to deploy in the country for a possible attack on Iraq, but it said a final deal on terms with Washington had yet to be sealed.

"We ask the United States and other allies to not let the military of Turkey or other countries enter Kurdistan," said the text of a declaration passed unanimously by the Kurdish assembly, which is dominated by two Kurdish factions that run northern Iraq.

Turkey, while insisting it will keep out of combat in any war on Iraq, fears a breakaway Kurdish state could emerge from the crisis, reigniting armed Kurdish separatism in the Turkish southeast.

The head of the Kurdish assembly said there was no reason for any Turkish intervention in north Iraq.

"We asked America to use its influence to keep regional forces from entering our area, because we are capable of protecting our own borders," Kamal Abdelkarim Fouad told reporters.

"We respect the borders of regional states, but at the same time we don't accept these countries getting involved in our internal affairs," he said.

Turkey has long had troops in north Iraq to hunt separatist Turkish Kurds based in the area, where Iraqi Kurds enjoy self-rule, protected by U.S. and British warplanes patrolling a "no-fly zone."

Separatist Turkish Kurds waged a bloody campaign in the 1980s and 1990s to carve out an ethnic homeland from Turkey.